The Prologue/Epilogue
is generally considered to be the most 'recent events' in _Use Of Weapons_.
That is to say they take place after Zakalwe's secret has been discovered
by Sma and 'The Drone'. Opinions differ as to whether Zakalwe is still
working for Special Circumstances at this stage or whether he has gone
freelance again. There don't seem to be any clues one way or the other.

Can you explain the timeline in _Use Of Weapons_?

MAJOR SPOILER
WARNING:

Use Of
Weapons Timeline:
Childhood; lives with aristocratic family during troubled times; eventually
grows up and starts a revolution (stopped by the real Cheradenine); kills
Darkense in gruesome manner and then escapes homeworld on STL cryoship
while disguised as Cheradenine.
Another world/another war - left for dead on ice flows; rescued by
Diziet and offered chance of working for SC presumably because of the
politics he'd been espousing. Wanders GSV, meets Chori; learns about what's
expected of him.
Another world/first job for the Culture; tries conciousness expanding
drug under tutelage of 'The Chosen One' while taking her to the Perfumed
Palace.
Initial Voerenhutz job - sets up Beychae as El Presidente of system.
Takes some time off; tries to become a poet; fails miserably.
Another mission (gone wrong?); left for dead in caldera; escapes by
dragging his body around a rock to form a local rescue symbol.
'Heretic' war; takes cross-eyed woman captive after ambush; wins war
again but demoted and discharged for apparently being too succesful...
Lives with Shias Engin, the poet, again miserably fails to lead La Dolce
Vita'.
His disintegration begins...
Beheaded on Fohls (and if that wasn't traumatic enough he also loses that
piece of Darkense); has new body grown; learns of Chori's death. Skaffen
sends him a hat. [:]
First escape from Culture; lives on beach as hermit - frightens locals.
Refuses to break out of the Winter palace seige contrary to what SC wants
(Mythoclast culture?).
Goes away for second time; destroys knife missile to escape Culture
control; nearly wrecks a planet with his brand of social tinkering; found
and brought back by Diziet.
Main storyline of UoW;
returns to Voerenhutz; saves Beychae; betrayed by SC on Balzeit; shaves
bonce, gets badly hurt, refuses medical help.
Returns to homeworld; has aneurism during Livueta's revelation; saved
by Skaffen. Sma recruits a new operative from Balzeit - this time making sure
he's of a more heroic nature.

Zakalwe is freelancing on some forgotten planet nuking the locals (prologue
and epilogue of UoW).

NON-SF -- Not science fiction
SF -- Science fiction
SF CULTURE -- Science fiction set in The Culture galaxy.
SS -- _The State Of The Art_ is a book of short stories that includes
NON-SF, SF and a 120 page Culture novella.

Both of
these books were written by 'an' Iain Banks but not by 'our' Iain Banks.
It also seems likely that these books were written by two different Iain
Banks's. It is unlikely that someone would specialize in both archaeological
sewage farms and classic glamour photography. I am, however, hoping to
be proved wrong on this!